Disclaimer: The characters and places in this story are all the property of JK Rowling. I have merely borrowed them and given them my own little twist.

Rating: PG

Note: I use the HP Lexicon as a reference and if the information is not concrete in there I make it up to suit the story. Various secondary characters are placed in years that are most convenient

This story and the Lupin story are now HBP and DH compliant. The changes include things like Andromeda being placed in the correct house and Professor Mistry becoming Professor Slughorn (as was pointed out to me, he was practically in character anyway so just needed a name change). The first couple of parts on the Snape story are very much in the tone of my Snape POVs, using the information we discover in DH and elaborating and extending on the same. I hope you don't mind.

Some changes are small some are larger, however if you have already read the story so far you will NOT have to re-read it in order to make sense of what is happening. There are a few little things that haven't been altered but they are things that will either

- Mean those already following the story will have to re-read

- Be impossible to alter because they affect the main plot (yeah I do actually have one – despite appearances to the contrary!)

- Probably small enough that they won't be noticed but too difficult to change (e.g. I put free classes (on the mornings following Astronomy classes) into the time tables for the first years which they shouldn't have until the sixth year. Since it took forever to get a working timetable for the two of houses and I have it for reference throughout altering it now would be practically impossible.)

This story is designed to run alongside my Origins: A Young Remus Lupin Story. They do stand alone but please consider checking out the other one too.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this story and especially to those who take the time to leave reviews. They are much appreciated.

Origins: A Young Severus Snape Story

Part 1 - First Impressions - The Hogwart's Express

Platform 9¾ was almost deserted at half past nine on the morning of the first of September.

An attendant skimmed through the Daily Prophet whilst his charmed broom cleaned the platform of litter. It was clear to anyone who observed him that the attendant had no interest in his job, after all what was the point of cleaning the platform now? In a couple of hours hundreds of students and their families would have passed through the barrier between platforms nine and ten at King's Cross Station, bringing with them rubbish and leaving it to be cleaned all over again.

For the time being though the platform was free of students.

The Hogwart's Express had pulled alongside the platform and was awaiting the numerous students and occasional professor who would be climbing on board shortly before 11am to make the long journey northwards to the castle which was Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Some would be making the journey to the school for the final time, others for the first. But the thing they all had in common was that they were all lucky enough to be going to the finest school for witches and wizards in the world.

The first of the students began to arrive a little after 10am. Those who had travelled to King's Cross by muggle train had to make sure that they didn't leave things too late. The last thing they wanted to do was to miss the one and only train that would take them to school.

Once the first students had arrived the platform began to fill as more and more students and their families hurried through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. By quarter to eleven the platform was positively teeming with people and cries of recognition echoed back and forth on the warm autumn morning.

As was usual many of the quietest of the students were those who were going to Hogwarts for the very first time.

One such student was a small, dark-haired, scrawny looking boy. He was wearing mismatched muggle clothing and was standing silently by a sour-faced looking woman who the observant would easily recognise was his mother.

Unlike most of the new students Severus Snape was lucky enough to know someone else who was going to be attending Hogwarts for the first time. His sharp eyes scanned the platform for several minutes as he tried to find the familiar face of Lily Evans amongst the masses.

Finally a portly woman stepped aside and Severus saw Lily standing with her parents and sister.

He wanted to go across and talk to her but something held him back.

She was talking to her sister who looked as though she wished she were anywhere but on the platform. Severus knew that the muggle schools wouldn't be starting back for a few more days and that Petunia would be going to one of those. Unlike her younger sister the elder of the Evans girls was not a witch.

Severus couldn't make out their words, the loud chatter of the crowd drowned out both of the girls, but from where he stood he could tell that their conversation was not going well. Petunia looked as angry as he'd ever seen her – not that he'd seen her look any other way – and he didn't fail to notice the look of venom that she shot his way at something her sister had said. He felt his face flush as he realised that he was the topic of conversation.

He had almost convinced himself to go across to the girls when he felt a hand on his shoulder guiding him towards the train. Submitting to the slight pressure he made sure that his pet toad was secured, grabbed one of the handles of his trunk and climbed aboard the Hogwart's Express.

He stowed his trunk in the first compartment he came to. He hadn't realised how close to 11am it was until he felt the train begin to move slightly. He wondered whether to make his way back into the corridor to wave to his mother on the platform. But he knew he'd never manage to push his way through the crowd of students that clustered around every window on that side of the train.

Instead he opened up his trunk and quickly pulled out his school robes. After a cautious glance at the compartment door to confirm that no one was looking in his direction he swiftly pulled off the muggle clothing and replaced them with his uniform. The robes were second hand but they were a still far better fit than the smock and jeans he'd worn for the journey to King's Cross.

He didn't know which carriage Lily was in but he knew that it wouldn't take long to find her.

Pushing his muggle clothes to the bottom of his trunk he closed the same and stepped back into the corridor as the other students began to make their way towards the various compartments.

Severus looked into several compartments without success. Most students merely ignored him, and let him move on. The corridors of the train were crowded and he wasn't the only student who appeared to be searching for friends who had not been located before the departure time.

The sounds of loud laughter came from the open door of the next compartment in the carriage and Severus poked his head in the door, hopeful again that in this one he'd find Lily.

It was clear that Severus had walked in at the end of some joke and he smiled at the older students who he could tell were from the school house he was hoping to be sorted into…Slytherin. The blond-haired boy wearing a prefect badge appeared to have been the one who had told the joke and Severus hovered in the doorway wondering if someone would fill him in on the amusing anecdote that the rest of the students in the compartment had just been regaled with. There were two seats free in the compartment – if the others moved their items and animals – and Severus wondered whether they might invite him and Lily to join them.

"The other first years are down that end," said the prefect, pointing further down the train in the direction Severus had been headed.

Severus looked around the compartment unsure what to say in the face of the hostile glances aimed in his direction.

"That way," repeated the boy, rather more sharply.

"What do you think Lucius? Is he deaf or daft?" asked a plump looking brown haired boy as he dipped his hand into a box of sweets.

"N-n-n-neither," stammered Severus, though his feet just refused to move.

"T-t-t-that way," mimicked the dark haired girl as she petted the grey cat who apparently qualified as good enough to sit with them. Everyone in the compartment burst into laughter at her clever imitation, Lucius laughing the loudest of all.

Severus backed out of the door and hurried in the direction of the rest of the first years, sure he'd find Lily and a warmer welcome soon.

A few minutes later he finally found her sitting in the corner of a compartment. There was a group of rowdy boys nearest the door while Lily herself sat hunched in a corner next to the window.

Severus slid open the compartment door, moved straight past the talking boys, and sat down opposite Lily. She glanced at him and then looked back out of the window. He could see that she had been crying and wondered briefly what had happened.

He hadn't even opened his mouth to speak when Lily broke her silence.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice.

"Why not?" Severus asked, at a total loss why she'd say such a thing.

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

"So what?" he blurted before he could stop himself. He didn't need to ask which letter she was talking about. He knew perfectly well it was the one the headmaster of Hogwarts had sent to the muggle girl who'd begged to be able to attend the school with her younger sister.

Lily threw him a look of deep dislike. He drew back a little in surprise at the hostility in his friend's face. They'd had arguments before but he'd been sure that they were past them now.

"So she's my sister!" Lily exclaimed.

"She's only a –" Severus caught himself quickly and was relieved to see that Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, had not heard him. He knew from experience that she disliked it when he discarded Petunia because of her status as a muggle.

""But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"

Lily nodded, mopping her eyes, and he was relieved to see a small half smile playing on her lips. He felt himself smiling wider in response.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," he said, encouraged that she had brightened a little.

"Slytherin?"

Severus wondered how he could have forgotten to tell her about the various houses at Hogwarts in all the time they'd known each other.

Before he could remedy the situation however, one of the boys sharing the compartment, voiced his opinion first.

"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" the slight, black-haired boy asked the boy lounging on the seats opposite him.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin," the boy he was speaking to said without smiling.

"Blimey," said the first boy, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

The second boy grinned.

"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

Severus watched as the first boy lifted an invisible sword.

"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!" Like my dad."

Severus had watched the exchange with interest but at the boy's words he could not stop the small, disparaging noise escaping. The boy turned to him with a hard look.

"Got a problem with that?" he asked.

"No," replied Severus although he couldn't keep the sneer from his voice any more than he could resist adding "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy-"

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interjected the second boy.

The first boy roared with laughter.

Severus was saved from trying to think up a smart retort by Lily. She appeared to have forgotten her earlier desire not to talk to him and was now sitting up, rather flushed, and looking at the two boys with dislike.

"Come on Severus, let's find another compartment," she said as she stood up and glared at the others.

"Oooooo…"

The two boys imitated her lofty voice as she marched past them and out of the door. Severus stood up to follow her and felt himself stumble slightly as an outstretched leg of the would-be Gryffindor was deliberately manoeuvred into his path.

"See ya, Snivellus!" a voice called as the compartment door slammed behind them. He wasn't sure he'd heard correctly but put it from his mind. As long as he was in Slytherin with Lily he'd be happy and would probably have little to do with the boys they had just left.

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